The goat is gone.
Naturally, this means war.
NETHERWILDS, the medieval avant-metal project born from the world of Worm Chewer, have unveiled the official video for “Return The Goat,” the first taste of a larger fantasy-metal saga due to continue on the project’s debut album later this fall via King Volume Records.
The project comes from the imagination of David Monks of TOKYO POLICE CLUB, though anyone expecting tidy indie-rock manners should probably leave their shoes at the castle gate. NETHERWILDS is mud, chainmail, folk instrumentation, thrash bite, industrial grit, punk momentum, theatrical world-building, and the kind of feudal misery that makes a missing goat feel like a revolutionary incident.
Directed by Noah Douglas and Jake Thompson and produced by Nathaniel Min, the “Return The Goat” video follows Worm Chewer and his newly assembled fellowship as they set off to recover said goat. What starts as a simple peasant errand quickly opens into a stranger realm of kings, mystics, executioners, revolutionaries, and people whose living conditions could absolutely use improvement.
Worm Chewer frames the whole thing with the correct amount of dirt-covered prophecy, explaining that although his goat has vanished, he has gained “a fellowship of minstrels” to roam the kingdom in search of the goat, glory, and slightly better living conditions. Honestly, that is a more coherent political platform than many kingdoms have managed.
“Return The Goat” works because it does not treat the bit like a throwaway costume. Beneath the absurdity sits a real story about power, survival, inequality, and ordinary people trying not to get flattened beneath the boot of some coin-counting lord. The goat may be the hook, but the rebellion is the point.
Musically, the track lurches between extreme metal, medieval folk color, dark humor, and cinematic weirdness. It feels like a tavern song got drafted into a peasant revolt, handed a rusty blade, and told to make itself useful.
The debut NETHERWILDS album is expected later this fall.
Hide your livestock accordingly.
